Rhadinosteus parvus is an extinct species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of prehistoric frog

Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...

s that lived during the Late Jurassic

Late Jurassic

The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago , which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age...

. Fossils of the species were found at the Rainbow Park site in Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

's Dinosaur National Monument

Dinosaur National Monument

Dinosaur National Monument is a National Monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers. Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry is located in Utah...

, from several slabs of rock which contain multiple partial specimens. R. parvus was likely a member of Pipoidea

Pipoidea

Pipoids are a superfamily of frogs....

 and may have been a member of the Rhinophrynidae family.

Description

R. parvus was a moderately sized frog, 42mm in length. Unlike the other members of Pipoidea its skeleton is not specialized for any specific task (such as aquatic life in Pipimorpha

Pipimorpha

Pipimorpha is an unranked biological classification containing extinct Pipids who are more closely related to living Pipidae species than to living Rhinophrynus species....

 species).

See also

• List of prehistoric amphibians
• Paleobiota of the Morrison Formation
  Paleobiota of the Morrison Formation
  The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has a wide assortment of taxa represented in its fossil record, including dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and...